Britain's world pursuit champion Bradley Wiggins yesterday took his third victory of the season on the road, taking the time trial stage on the final day of the Tour de Poitou-Charentes in western France to add to his successes in the prologue time trials in the Four Days of Dunkirk and the Dauphiné Libéré stage race.

Wiggins finished 20 seconds ahead of the Frenchman Stéphane Berges, but was not in contention for the overall title. His Cofidis team confirmed yesterday that he will leave them at the end of the season with the T-Mobile team of Mark Cavendish and Roger Hammond understood to be his most likely destination. Wiggins expressed his disillusionment with Cofidis after they withdrew from this year's Tour de France following a positive drugs test for Christian Moreni.

The Londoner will line up tomorrow for the GP Ouest France at Plouay and on the same circuit today another British star, Nicole Cooke, starts the penultimate round of the women's world cup hoping to close in on an unprecedented third overall victory in the season-long series.

The final outcome may not be decided until the last round in Nuremberg on September 16, where double points are on offer, but Cooke leads the series by 51 points from the world road race champion Marianne Vos, with no other woman in touch. "A good ride here would certainly help towards stitching it up," said Cooke.

"I've got a lot of experience riding here but what is more to my advantage is that my Raleigh team have six very strong riders. I can definitely hope it will be a big step towards winning the world cup."

The 24-year-old has happy memories of this corner of Brittany: she took the junior world road race title there in 2000 and won the world cup round in 2003, the first year she won the series. Last year, third place was a key step en route to her second world cup. She comes to the race fresh from an eighth victory in the British national title and a stage win last week in the Albstadt two-dayer in Germany, where she also enjoyed another fine ride from this year's British discovery Emma Pooley.

Today, however, the hope is that her Raleigh team can keep Vos on a tight rein: "We are evenly matched, she's a very strong climber and sprinter so I have to hope the team can keep her under control," she said. "I have a stronger team than she does so we can ride the race we want to rather than letting her, or anyone else, dictate to us."